Saturday, June 28, 2008

The recipe i got from Paula Deens Chocolate Celebration magazine, which is an amazing magazine! The one thing i didnt realize, however, is that because it is different than a normal red velvet cake, the color doesnt turn out the same. Usually this would have been a gorgeous purple velvet cake, which is what i had visioned, howver then it quickly became just plain old brown.. blah. It was still very festive though with colorful sprinkles in the icing layers, and on top.

4. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until foamy. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peak forms. Fold eggs into chocolate mixture.

5. Dpread batter into prepared pan and bake for 10-12 min. or until cake springs back when lightly touched in center.6. Sift two tablespoons confectioners sugar in a 15 by 10 inch rectangle on a cloth towel. Immediately loosen cake from sides of pan and turn out onto prepared towel. Peel off wax paper. Sift remaining powdered sugar over cake.

Starting at narrow end, roll up cake and towel together; place cake seam side down on a wire rack. Cool cake completly.7. Gently unroll cake and spread with cream cheese white chocolate filling. Reroll cake without towel; place seam side down on a serving platter. Dust cake with confectioners sugar if desired. To serve, cut into 3/4 inch slices. You can garnish with chocolate sauce, or fresh mint leaves.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed until creamy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add in confectioners sugar until smooth. Here I added the melted white chocolate. Then when its cool, add white chocolate morsels, and sprinkles.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

My dad has always loved those little turtle candies (..you know the ones in the orange and white package..) and we usually end up getting him a box for holidays, so this year i decided to include his love for those little turtles in a cake made just for him. I got this recipe from my recipes.com and Oxmoor house, but instead of buying frosting, i couldn't help but make my own, I actually didnt find anything else about this recipe i would change, i think thats a first! Anyway.. in the process of making my own frostings, i actually invented my own chocolate frosting recipe that tastes AMAZING! When finished the cake turned out moist, rich, and absolutely fabulous! This could almost tie with my decadent Oreo cake, and actually it took a lot less time to make than that one. SooooOooo... heres the recipes i used:

3. Bake at 350° for 30 to 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely. Wrap and chill cake layers at least 1 hour. refrigerator.

4. Whisk together cream cheese frosting and canned dulce de leche in a small bowl until well blended. Set aside. Cut 6 turtle candies in half, and set aside for garnish. Dice remaining turtle candies.

5. Using a serrated knife, slice cake layers in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on cake plate. Spread with 1/2 cup cream cheese frosting mixture; sprinkle with one-third diced turtle candies. Repeat procedure twice. Place final cake layer on top of cake, cut side down. Spread chocolate fudge frosting on top and sides of cake. Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Just before serving, drizzle dulce de leche ice cream topping over top of cake. Garnish with remaining halved turtle candies and pecan halves. Store in

Test Kitchen Tip: We tested with 2 dulce de leche products: canned and jarred. The canned product is by Nestlé and available in a 14-oz. can. It's quite thick, and when blended with ready-to-spread cream cheese frosting, makes a rich, caramel-flavored filling. Find it in the supermarket with the Mexican ingredients. The jarred dulce de leche ice cream topping is perfect to drizzle over the finished cake. Find it in the supermarket with other ice cream toppings.

Simply beat all ingredients together, make sure and melt the white chocolate chips first, they are my favorite part,and they just add a little extra kick. BTW this is probably the only recipe i wont add butter flavoring too, i think im a butter flavoring addict.

Beat butter on medium speed until it is smooth. Melt the semi-sweet chips and the unsweet squares, and let cool a couple of minutes while you do the next step (you can melt these together, in a double boiler, or just simply in the microwave). Next pour in 2 cups powder sugar, along with cocoa, and when that is combined pour in your melted chocolate. Next, one more cup powdered sugar, then your milk, then the final cup powder sugar, and finally when all that is mixed add your flavorings.

My mother always tells me to make my frosting thicker since it will pipe better, however depending on how thin/thick you would like it, you can add more milk, also i ended up adding a little of my left over dulce de leche to the last of my frosting as i piped around the sides and top of my cake, and it added a nice texture, and just a tiny bit more flavor as well.

Mix cool whip, and softened cream cheese together. Add Strawberry Jello mix to your tastes, and a couple drops strawberry extract can even be added here, and then add the diced strawberries. Melt White chocolate and pour into wilton cup molds 1/3 full brushing up the sides just like the oreo truffle cups. Refridgerate for several minutes, and brush up the sides a little more for thickness if desired. Pop the cups out, fill with strawberry ,mixture and drizzle white chocolate on top if you would like, they also look nice without it, then add a strabwerry slice in the top.

Bird Strawberry Cup! Get creative, this guy is made with mini chocolate kisses and melted chocolate for the eyes, and a strawberry nose, lol.

*Wilton plastic cup molds*White Chocolate Almond Bark*Milk Chocolate too, if desired*8 ounces, or one package, cream cheese*18 oz. package of oreo cookiesCrush up the oreos and mix them with the cream cheese just like you would for oreo truffles. I then melted chocolate, i mixed whtie and milk a little, however just white chocolate would be really cute, and then i added a little bit of crushed oreos in with the chocolate to give it that cookies and cream look. Next fill the wilton cup molds about 1/3 full and take a paint brush and brush up some chocolate up the sides of the cups. Place them in the fridge for several minutes, and then brush up the sides again, because chances are there is some still melted in the bottom, and not very thick sides. Finally pop out the cups, fill them with the oreo mix, and drizzle chocolate on top, placing some remaining oreo crumbs on top adds a final touch.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

I found this recipe in a Rachel ray magazine, however I've also seen them made along with some Gorgeous pictures on Joy the Baker's blog: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/archives/64. I already love red velvet, and these cookies are probably the most moist, and perfect cookies I've ever made. I made them once several months ago just to try out a new red velvet cake recipe, however these i made for a black, white, and red prom. When i was asked to make cookies, and learned of the colors, i new these were the perfect match. They are a perfect cookie, that appears with a little class, and of course all the appeal of the popular black and white cookie.

* I added Cream cheese to the white icing, just cause i think that you can't have red velvet without cream cheese icing. It turned out a lot better like this.

Recipe:By Rachel Ray

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

5 Tablespoons butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

For Vanilla Graze

2 cups powdered sugar

1 Teaspoon light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 oz. Cream Cheese (my lil Alteration)

For Chocolate Glaze

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

3 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease and flour the pan well so the cookies don’t stick. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, beat 5 tablespoons butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.

Place 1/4-cup scoops of batter 2 inches apart of the prepared baking sheet, spread the batter out with a butter knife. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Back to the peanut butter cookie variations i picked up a classic with the peanut butter cookies and kisses, and put a Reeses on it instead. The kisses i changed and put on a brownie cookie. And finally i decided to bake them in mini muffin pans instead of the classic boring cookie sheet. this also helped them be a little thicker, and easier to press the candy into. Simple, easy, and cheap, which would explain why these are my mothers newest favorite to make. She also insists on merely buying the pre-packaged dough, so you really don't even get your kitchen very messy, and everybody is still impressed with all your creativity.

Just Scoop out about a tablespoon, or so, of dough into mini muffin pan. After cooking make sure that your Reeses have already been unwrapped and press one into the top of all the cookies. Best to do this before taking them out of the pan.

BrownieKisses:

All you need is:*Pilsbury brownie mix in a tube*Hersheys KissesThe brownie mix is super soft, and a little strange took worth with at first, i recommend freezing it for about 10 min. before you work with it so that its not so slimy and soft. After that just scoop out about a tablespoon into your mini muffins tins. After baking press a kiss into each brownie just enough so that it will stay in, this must be done shortly after taking them out so that they are still soft enough. Also remember to have all these unwrapped before they get done baking just like the reeses.

After getting tired of the plain old peanut butter cookies, or the reeses puanut butter cookies that my mother always insists i make, i decided to find something a little different to make, and i found this recipe on pilsbury. For a party or anything where you have to feed a lot of people, these are super easy and cheap, yet are unique, and sure to be a crowd pleaser. Heres all i did.

What i did: I basically mixed some peanut butter with some powdered sugar, the exact amount im not sure, and then i rolled them into balls, and rolled some peanut butter cookie dough around them. After that i put them on the cookie sheet to bake at 350.

What i did, was basically take the original recipe and make it even easier, however here is the recipe from Pillsbury for Double Delight Peanut Butter cookies:

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Getting ready for graduation? These cookie hats, are perfect for a Grad party! They are super adorable, and they taste amazing as well! I found this recipe at family fun originally.

*Reeses Peanut butter cups*Fudge Graham cracker cookies (just use Keebler)*peanut butter*yellow fruit roll ups (i bought a package with all the colors, and even though it was the tattoo kind, i just cut around the tattoos)*Ready to use yellow frosting (just this just looks cute on top)

Place some peanut butter in between the graham cracker and the top of the Reeses, then take your fruit rollups, spread them out, and cut little strips, splitting them at the end. Press the top of the fruit rollup on the top, center of the graham cracker, and pull the split a little farther apart at the bottom because its probably stuck back together by now, and its just cuter with the actual end split. Finally add a little dab of the squirt icing, and you might need to wait a little bit so that it can dry and you can pat down the spike left from the icing.

Cheap, easy, and they taste amazing! make sure you add these to your Family Graduation party!

Monday, May 12, 2008

His body is made out of a dome/semi-circle shaped pan, and i dyed each hump a different color, so each segment was different, on the inside and out! The grass is made out of coconut dyed green, you just put it into a bag with some green food coloring, and a little water... (the exact amount should be on the coconut can) and then you squeeze it around till it's all dyed. His body I did with a star tip, any size will do since i used a different tip on just about every hump. You can also use a hair tip, i used one of these on the purple part, and it was super cute. His eyes are just ovals filled in, and if you dip your finger in powder sugar and then pat them down, it makes them look smooth, finally put a brown m&m in the middle.The nose is done in the same way with powdered sugar, and then i used these spaghetti gummies i found for the mouth and antenna, the feet are just hersheys kisses.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

These Brownie mini cakes, were the perfect excuse to try out my new Wilton mini cake pans, as well as celebrate teacher appreciation. I combined several recipes, and of course didnt follow any of them very well, mostly because i cook on taste rather than directions. So i will get to putting the recipe on here for how i made these, in the mean time i thought id just put up the pics! They are so cute!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Buttery Cinnamon and Chocolate chip Muffins.. and if thats not enough, i topped them off with a little cream cheese icing! Unlike those muffins that when your done with the top your ready to toss out and start on another, these you can't stop till every last bite is devoured!

I combined a cinnamon swirl muffin mix i had with a cinnamon streusel coffee cake mix, just adding the ingredients as instructed on the back of the boxes. Then i added chocolate chips, and mine were normal semi-sweet, but i think this might have been the tiniest bit better with milk chocolate, mini chocolate chips, or even without. After that i took the streusel from one box and put it on the top. I then added a little slice of butter, and then the crumble topping from the other recipe, and cooked them at 350 until they looked lightly brown and i could stick a toothpick in and it come out clean. I had a little cream cheese icing left from another recipe, so i just drizzled it on top, not totally necessary, but it added a finished look, and tasted just that much more amazing. An easy recipe, that wasn't very time consuming, but was definitely a crowd pleaser, and as far as muffins go, ranked above the rest!

Tip: Make sure and use muffin cups, just greasing the pan isn't the best idea for this recipe, i tried it both ways, and muffin cups are the better way to go!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

I made this cake for my friends birthday. My friend declared that she wanted a chocolate cake, however since I'm not a big fan of plain chocolate cake, i decided to mix it up a little. I followed a recipe that called for chocolate cupcakes, with a cheesecake center. instead of the cheesecake in the cupcakes, i made a layer of cheesecake in the middle of my cake by pouring some of the batter in it, then putting on the cheesecake layer, then pouring the rest of the batter on top. I was a little scared at how this recipe would turn out, however, it turned out pretty good. I also made some red velvet cake balls to go along with the cake since she was having some people over, and i didn't know how many the cake would feed. Turns out it was more than enough, and the zebra was a big hit! O yeah, I didn't use any fondant on my cake, i have yet to experiment with that. I iced it with regular old bags, but i still think it looked pretty good, and definitely tasted Amazing!